In California water news today, Seeking more water, Silicon Valley eyes Central Valley farmland; Federal bill includes $14 million to boost water storage for Central Valley, Nor Cal; PG&E Wants to Make a Massive Investment in Weather Stations. Here’s Why; Trump Administration Hardens Its Attack on Climate Science; Appeals court arguments set in ‘Takings’ affecting Klamath Basin; Owens Valley: FERC finds Premium Energy’s application ‘patently deficient’; Major Habitat Restoration Project Set to Move Forward at Salton Sea; The Colorado River’s Biggest Challenge Looms; and more …
On the calendar today …
- WEBINAR: Tribal Beneficial Uses and Harmful Algal Bloom Monitoring Programs in California from 11am to 1pm. Presented by the California Water Quality Monitoring Council. Register in advance for webinar: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/ffdf90e7cc2630b94ac87b605f06faf5
- Rains to Bay – A Deep Watershed Dive: Sustainable Silicon Valley, from 12pm to 6pm. Click here to register.
In the news today …
Also on Maven’s Notebook today …
Seeking more water, Silicon Valley eyes Central Valley farmland: “The largest water agency in Silicon Valley has been secretly negotiating to purchase a sprawling cattle ranch in Merced County that sits atop billions of gallons of groundwater, a move that could create a promising new water source — or spark a political battle between the Bay Area and Central Valley farmers. The Santa Clara Valley Water District, based in San Jose, is in talks with the owners of the 4-S Ranch, a 5,257-acre property located about 15 miles northeast of Los Banos, for what would be a multi-million-dollar deal to create a huge underground water reserve. … ” Read more from the San Jose Mercury News here: Seeking more water, Silicon Valley eyes Central Valley farmland
Federal bill includes $14 million to boost water storage for Central Valley, Nor Cal: “A congressional bill includes almost $14 million in funding for water projects in the Central Valley and Northern California. Rep. Josh Harder, D-Turlock, said he was successful in working the funding into an Energy and Water Development appropriations bill that includes spending for infrastructure across the nation. According to a Harder press release, the bill has $4.1 million for the North Valley Regional Recycled Water Program, which supplies highly treated wastewater from Modesto and Turlock to farmland in western Stanislaus County. … ” Read more from the Modesto Bee here: Federal bill includes $14 million to boost water storage for Central Valley, Nor Cal
Huerta, local leaders urge lawmakers to support clean drinking water fund to be paid for through tax: “Community activist Dolores Huerta joined local leaders in East Bakersfield to urge elected leaders Tuesday to vote in favor of legislation they say will ensure safe drinking water for communities in the valley. Specifically, Huerta urged the legislature to support what’s being termed the Safe and Affordable Drinking Water Fund. If passed, the $140 million fund would be used for the maintenance of water treatment facilities. It would be financed by the tax payers, estimated to be a one dollar per month tax increase on every water bill in California. … ” Read more from KGET here: Huerta, local leaders urge lawmakers to support clean drinking water fund to be paid for through tax
PG&E Wants to Make a Massive Investment in Weather Stations. Here’s Why: “The fire that ripped across the North Bay hills in 2017 was propelled by hurricane-force winds in some places, even as weather stations in the flat lands in Santa Rosa and Napa registered little more than a breeze. The same was true in the town of Paradise when it was consumed by the Camp Fire. The winds near Paradise were blowing hard and fast, propelling the fire forward, says Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA. However just a few miles away in the Sacramento Valley, the winds were nearly calm. “In many cases, there haven’t been weather stations in close enough proximity to these fires to get a really good handle of what the conditions are actually like on the ground — we are essentially poking around in the dark,” says Swain. … ” Read more from KQED here: PG&E Wants to Make a Massive Investment in Weather Stations. Here’s Why
The West has many wildfires, but too few prescribed burns, study finds: “President Trump has laid the blame for out-of-control California wildfires on the state’s “gross mismanagement” of its forests. Former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke pointed the finger at “environmental terrorist groups.” But according to a new study, the federal government is not doing enough to control the threat of wildfire in the West. Despite years of scientific research pointing to prescribed or “controlled” burns as a successful method of clearing brush and restoring ecosystems, intentional fire-setting by federal agencies has declined in much of the West over the last 20 years, the study found. ... ” Read more from the LA Times here: The West has many wildfires, but too few prescribed burns, study finds
Trump Administration Hardens Its Attack on Climate Science: “President Trump has rolled back environmental regulations, pulled the United States out of the Paris climate accord, brushed aside dire predictions about the effects of climate change, and turned the term “global warming” into a punch line rather than a prognosis. Now, after two years spent unraveling the policies of his predecessors, Mr. Trump and his political appointees are launching a new assault. ... ” Read more from the NY Times here: Trump Administration Hardens Its Attack on Climate Science
Rain gardens clean pollution on Seattle’s Aurora Bridge: “On a dry day, the vehicles passing over Seattle’s Aurora Bridge have little impact on the water below. When it rains, however, the bridge is a serious problem. “The contaminated stormwater coming off the bridge looks very much like a heavy murky cup of coffee. It’s black when it comes out, and that is the combination of petroleum products, other pollution, zinc and copper,” said Salmon Safe Puget Sound Manager Ellen Southard. … ” Read more from Channel 5 News here: Rain gardens clean pollution on Seattle’s Aurora Bridge
And lastly … Herrin (Illinois) plans to send treated wastewater to Salton Sea, Utah, Arizona: “Herrin’s mayor is making plans to send millions of gallons of water out west, to an area plagued with drought. Steve Frattini went to a water conference a few years ago in California amid a severe drought. “The desperation in the people’s eyes is much more than what you can read about,” Frattini said. So he started working on a plan to send water to the area. The water is from the Wastewater Treatment Plant and while it is clean enough to drink, it would end up in the Big Muddy River anyway. ... ” Read more from WSIL here: Herrin plans to send treated wastewater to drought-stricken areas
In commentary today …
A Reminder that Climate Solutions Already Exist in Nature: As one of the last orders he made as governor, Jerry Brown mandated that California be carbon neutral by 2045 and carbon negative thereafter. That’s a difficult challenge – California’s carbon emissions have dropped since the state passed its pioneering climate legislation in 2006, but to go “carbon negative” means we’d have to store more carbon than we emit. There is a major part of the solution here that is obvious to everyone except the funders and politicians of the world: plants. … ” Read more from Bay Nature here: A Reminder that Climate Solutions Already Exist in Nature
In regional news and commentary today …
Appeals court arguments set in ‘Takings’ affecting Klamath Basin: “A federal appeals court has set July 8 as the date for oral argument in a lawsuit of critical importance to Klamath Project irrigators that was filed 18 years ago. “This hearing will provide local irrigators with an opportunity to explain why the federal government should be required to compensate Klamath Project farmers and ranchers when it reallocated irrigation water to threatened and endangered species in 2001,” said Nathan Ratliff, the attorney coordinating local efforts in the case. … ” Read more from the Herald & News here: Appeals court arguments set in ‘Takings’ affecting Klamath Basin
Klamath: Rescission of letter delights dam removal opponents: “Opponents of dam removal feel validated after the Trump administration’s recently appointed Secretary of Interior withdrew a 2016 letter which supported the Klamath Hydroelectric Settlement Agreement. Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt wrote a letter, dated May 17 to the secretary of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission asking her to rescind the previous administration’s letter of support, as it was “unnecessary.” “The letter was meaningless when it was submitted, and there was no meaning when it was revoked,” agreed Matt Cox, communications director for the Klamath River Renewal Corporation, the agency overseeing dam removal. ... ” Read more from the Taft Midway Driller here: Klamath: Rescission of letter delights dam removal opponents
Yurok, Karuk and Hoopa tribes relay for rivers: “A misty dawn broke when James Kleinhans, Josh Norris and his children Eddie and CJ and Margaret Keating School student Ruby Ross dipped their fish into the river and set off. Cradling the wooden salmon under their arms and joined by Chrystal Helton and her boys, the runners legged it from the mouth of the Klamath River, through the sacred dance site of Wehl-kwew to the bridge that was washed away by the flood in 1964. … ” Read more from the Del Norte Triplicate here: Yurok, Karuk and Hoopa tribes relay for rivers
Clarksburg flood risk reduction study presented to supervisors: “Although flooding hasn’t occurred in Clarksburg since the construction of the levee system in the early 1900s, the community is considered a moderate to high hazard flood area, according to a county report. For that reason, a flood risk reduction feasibility study has been prepared for the town similar to those conducted for Yolo and Knights Landing with funds from the California Department of Water Resources. The most recent study looked at Clarksburg and surrounding agricultural lands. Levees in the area are maintained by four reclamation districts. ... ” Read more from the Daily Democrat here: Clarksburg flood risk reduction study presented to supervisors
Spring snowstorm turns Yosemite into a wonderland. See how stunning it looked: “Yosemite National Park visitors experienced a different kind of Memorial Day weekend with snowstorms that closed park roads and blanketed Yosemite with snow. … This has been an extraordinarily wet year for Yosemite and California. Park officials reported that Yosemite snowpack was at 160% of average in the Merced River basin and 149% of average in the Tuolumne River basin as of May 1. Below are some of the recent snowy scenes shared on social media by park visitors. … ” Read more from the Fresno Bee here: Spring snowstorm turns Yosemite into a wonderland. See how stunning it looked
Owens Valley: FERC finds Premium Energy’s application ‘patently deficient’: “Mono and Inyo Counties was handed a reprieve by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last Friday. The Commission’s Division of Hydropower Licensing found Premium Energy’s application for a closed loop system from reservoirs in the Owens Gorge to the White Mountains “patently deficient.” That’s the good news. The FERC did not find the project patently deficient because of environmental or common sense reasons. … ” Read more from the Sierra Wave here: FERC finds Premium Energy’s application ‘patently deficient’
San Luis Obispo County: Will Arroyo Grande Oil Field add 481 new oil wells? It just cleared a major hurdle: “Sentinel Peak Resources has cleared an environmental hurdle that could allow it to move forward with years-old plans to increase drilling in the Arroyo Grande Oil Field — but whether it will or not is still up in the air. The Environmental Protection Agency granted Sentinel Peak Resources an aquifer exemption on April 30, exempting portions of the aquifer under the oil field from protections guaranteed by the federal Safe Drinking Water Act. In its decision, the EPA determined that portions of the aquifer where the Denver-based company plans to inject wastewater underground are not currently used for drinking water and will not in the future serve as drinking water because it contains “commercially producible quantities of hydrocarbons.” … ” Read more from the San Luis Obispo Tribune here: San Luis Obispo County: Will Arroyo Grande Oil Field add 481 new oil wells? It just cleared a major hurdle
Santa Barbara: EDC Declares Orcutt Oilfields Contaminated Drinking Water Wells: “A presentation by the U.S. Geological Survey to California water boards has surfaced that reveals contamination in the groundwater around the Orcutt oilfield, the Environmental Defense Center in Santa Barbara claims. The advocacy group released the information on Tuesday, stating that “federal scientists found evidence of oil-field fluids in groundwater underlying the nearby Orcutt oil field.” The February presentation by USGS hydrologist Robert Anders was a preliminary report that described the oil field as straddling both the Santa Maria and the San Antonio groundwater basins. … ” Read more from the Santa Barbara Independent here: EDC Declares Orcutt Oilfields Contaminated Drinking Water Wells
Major Habitat Restoration Project Set to Move Forward at Salton Sea: “The state of California, after resolving key hurdles, is set to move forward on a restoration project at the Salton Sea to improve habitat for migratory birds, while covering more exposed sea bed. When the State Water Resources Control Board last met to discuss the status of the Salton Sea Management Program (SSMP), Chairman E. Joaquin Esquivel called upon the State to resolve issues causing delays in the State’s lead project at the sea—Species Conservation Habitat (SCH). ... ” Read more from the Water News Network here: Major Habitat Restoration Project Set to Move Forward at Salton Sea
Along the Colorado River …
The Colorado River’s Biggest Challenge Looms: “It’s been a big year for the Colorado River — and one that may set the stage for decades to come. For years it’s been apparent that the Colorado, which supplies water to 40 million people in the West — including major cities such as Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Phoenix and Denver — is in “structural deficit.” There’s more demand for water than the river can provide. … States will need to find a way to live with less water, but how those cuts will be distributed and how deep they’ll go will be the next area of contention. As the stage is being set for this showdown, we talked to Colorado River expert John Fleck, director of the water resources program at the University of New Mexico and author of the book Water is for Fighting Over: and Other Myths about Water in the West. … ” Read more from The Revelator here: The Colorado River’s Biggest Challenge Looms
Following New Mexico, Nevada is poised to put tribal consultation requirements in statute: “The hearing on April 11 started out as routine as any mid-session legislative hearing does. The bill’s sponsor, Democratic Assemblywoman Sarah Peters, gave a presentation and described a conceptual amendment. Supporters spoke about why the bill mattered. Lawmakers asked a few questions. Then something unusual happened. The chair began calling out the names of nearly everyone on Assembly Government Affairs. One-by-one, Democrats and Republicans were signing on as co-sponsors of Assembly Bill 264, which requires state agencies to include tribal nations in their decision-making process after a history of leaving Nevada’s 27 tribes and colonies on the side. … ” Read more from the Nevada Independent here: Following New Mexico, Nevada is poised to put tribal consultation requirements in statute
Also on Maven’s Notebook today …
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About the Daily Digest: The Daily Digest is a collection of selected news articles, commentaries and editorials appearing in the mainstream press. Items are generally selected to follow the focus of the Notebook blog. The Daily Digest is published every weekday with a weekend edition posting on Sundays.
